Eye-Fi Mobi Wi-Fi SD card review

Wi-Fi SD cards have become an essential tool for many professional photographers, and now Eye-Fi is reaching out to hobbyists and novices with the Eye-Fi Mobi SD card. The Mobi shares many traits with the Eye-Fi Pro X2, which we reviewed alongside the Transcend Wi-Fi SD card a while back. The only differences come down to the Mobi's simplified setup and a few watered-down features. The Eye-Fi Mobi is available in 8GB (our unit), 16GB, and 32GB iterations. The 16GB Mobi is $20 cheaper than the Eye-Fi Pro X2, which is now only offered in a 16GB capacity. The 32GB Mobi card is the same price as the 16GB Pro X2, so the Mobi will save you a bit of cash and offer increased storage if it suits the type of shooting you do.

I ran the Eye-Fi Mobi through the same tests I did with the Pro X2 card throughout this review, so read on if the Mobi is on your radar.

Glancing at this list, it's easy to see that the Eye-Fi Mobi and Pro X2 share a lot of similarities. They both offer Class 10 SDHC performance and feature ranges of 90 feet (27.4m) outdoors and 45 feet (13.7m) indoors. So, speed and performance on these cards should be about the same. Where the cards differ is in the handling of Raw files. The Pro X2 card can upload Raw files from the card, while the Mobi is limited strictly to JPEG files. Both cards support a variety of video files, and the Mobi can read and write many files, including Raw. They just can't be uploaded.

In my experience, I never really uploaded Raw images from the Pro X2 because it took such a long time, and I only needed large screen previews for my clients. Low resolution JPEGs were nice and quick with the Pro X2, so this was not a major loss. For photographers who need the versatility of wireless Raw and JPEG upload capability, the Mobi will not be suitable.

The other feature the Mobi lacks is the ability to connect to a home or office (third party), or Ad Hoc Wi-Fi connection to upload images to a computer like the Pro X2. In fact, the Pro X2 is the only card that can fully utilize 802.11n. The Mobi can connect to backwards compatible 802.11n networks. This means the Pro X2 card could connect to my home wireless cable connection and use that as a route to my computer for uploading images. This was even less of a loss, since I only used the Eye-Fi Pro X2's own wireless network to connect the camera directly to my iPhone, iPad or MacBook Pro.

Connection

The Eye-Fi Mobi connects to a mobile device or computer strictly via its own wireless network. In fact, the connection setup is easier with the Mobi card than it is with the Pro X2. I had no trouble connecting to an iPad or iPhone with the Mobi after following the necessary steps.

First I had to download the Eye-Fi application for my phone from Apple's App Store (also available for Android on Google Play). Then I placed the Mobi card in my Mark III, and enabled Wi-Fi transmission in the Mark III's menu. I disabled the Auto Power Off feature on the Mark III because the Eye-Fi Mobi gets its power from the camera's battery, and auto sleep disrupts the Wi-Fi connection. Then I joined the Mobi's wireless network on the mobile device and opened up the Eye-Fi application. As I began shooting, the JPEGs I captured began uploading to the gallery in the Eye-Fi application, which were subsequently saved to the camera roll on my device.

A look at a JPEG uploading to the gallery in the Eye-Fi iPad application.

A look at the option menu in the Eye-Fi iPad application.

The Mobi can upload JPEGs and videos to a computer, but there is no real interface aside from a small task bar menu. Once a computer is connected, images will automatically start uploading to a designated folder. While it's easier to setup a Mobi card than the Pro X2, it lacks the ability to work with the Eye-Fi Center program on a computer, which is the third main difference between the two cards. The Eye-Fi Center program, which is compatible with the Pro X2, has several advanced options and a full menu interface, including geotagging and transfer mode options. The downside is that the Eye-Fi Center program is a bit daunting to use, especially for novices. So the Mobi trades limited setup options for ease of use, which is ideal for beginners.

A look at the interface of the Eye-Fi application on an iPhone 5.

Connection setup is as easy as 1-2-3.

The only time I ran into a connection disruption was when I failed to disable the Auto Power Off option on my Mark III. When the camera would power off, the Eye-Fi Mobi would stop transmitting its Wi-Fi signal. As long as the sleep was disabled, I had no problems, but it was quite taxing on the battery, since the camera's screen and the Wi-Fi card were both sucking up juice at the same time. I highly recommend using a battery grip or having spare batteries at hand. After a 5 1/2 hour shoot using the Mobi to upload small JPEGs to my computer for clients to see, my camera's battery life was clinging onto one bar. This was with a two-battery grip.

A look at an image in the gallery of the Eye-Fi iPad application.

Sharing options include email, Facebook and Twitter.

Like my experience with the Pro X2 card, I was highly impressed with the performance of the Mobi card in conjunction with the mobile device application. Everything is simplified and easy to use, including a nice gallery with sharing options for Facebook, Twitter and email. As with the camera, it was important to disable Sleep on the mobile device to retain a solid connection. This ran down the battery life of the mobile devices I tested significantly. I found the best setup was to keep the iPad, iPhone, or MacBook plugged in during long shoots.

Performance

Fortunately, the Eye-Fi Mobi gave me a nearly identical performance to the Pro X2 card. The Mobi was solid and reliable, and I never had any issues with the card not being recognized by a computer when hard-connected via an SD card reader. Aside from running down the battery life of my camera and mobile device or computer, the Mobi was rather flawless.

In terms of speed, the Mobi could upload a 5.5MP (2MB) JPEG in approximately 5 seconds. This test was carried out on my iPhone 5, iPad 2 and MacBook Pro, and I came up with approximately the same results on all three. Now, keep in mind that while shooting with the Mobi, I was able to see the image I just took pop up on my mobile device or laptop in around 5 seconds. That's fully uploaded, and not just a preview. And, if 5 seconds was too long, I could always capture a smaller JPEG. When I shot in 'S2' and VGA sizes on my 5D Mark III, the transfer was almost instantaneous. This is the time it took from shutter button to full upload, as there is a slight delay while the Wi-Fi signal transmits. The actual transfer time was much quicker, but I wanted a real-world sample of what can be expected while out in the field.

Since the Mobi is only geared for JPEG shooting, most users will want to shoot and upload larger files. When I shot at 9.8MP (3MB), the transfer time was closer to 6 seconds, and 22MP (6MB) ran me about 10 seconds per image. So, the larger the image size, the longer the wait, but not by much. Obviously, there are a few factors at play here regarding distance and device speed. I found at times that image transfers wouldn't start right after I pressed the shutter button on my camera, then all of a sudden they would begin uploading to my device in batches. If you are shooting away and don't need to see the images on your device right away, the Mobi is a very useful tool. However, if you need instant full-resolution gratification, you might find yourself waiting.

I preferred shooting at smaller resolutions during commercial gigs because I really only needed to fill the screen of my laptop. Clients loved the Wi-Fi setup, especially since I was able to enter a command on my laptop that showed a fullscreen preview of the image as soon as it entered the designated folder on my desktop. The iPad was also an ideal device to use, given that it provided the full screen preview as soon as the image uploaded, without the need to type a command.

Now for range. Eye-Fi claims the Mobi can handle a distance of 90 feet (27.4m) outdoors and 45 feet (13.7m) indoors. Just like the Eye-Fi Pro X2, I was able to stretch the indoor range to roughly 50 ft. and the outdoor range to approximately 100 ft. After that, I lost connection, but the card slightly exceeded its specifications, which was excellent.

Conclusion

At the end of my experience with the Eye-Fi Mobi, I was beyond pleased. Despite its simplistic nature, I found the card to do all of the things I did with the Pro X2, while exhibiting identical performance characteristics. For someone just looking to showcase small JPEGs for a client on a shoot, or someone who frequently uploads images to social networking sites, the Eye-Fi Mobi is a fantastic choice.

If I was in the market, I would opt for a 32GB Mobi, which is twice the capacity of the Pro X2 at the same price. Photographers who need an Ad Hoc connection, advanced Eye-Fi Center desktop program on a laptop or PC, and the ability to upload Raw files will certainly want to go with the more advanced Pro X2 card, as the Mobi does not have those features. However, if you're looking for a Wi-Fi card that's simple to setup and blasts images off into cyberspace in a matter of seconds while you take advantage of your camera's far superior image quality (compared to a phone), you can't go wrong with the Eye-Fi Mobi.

Comments

Just bought a Mobi Eye-Fi 8gig and threw that crap away. It;s slow, crashes, errors out, etc. I thought my new camera was broken but it turns out it's the crappy card. It's by far the worst product I have ever used.

Btw, all photos saved on it is lost. I came home, stuck it in my PC, crashed windows. Everytime I put it in it crashes Windows. Can't grab files off of it and the eye-fi installer software was stuck in a loop of transferring files.

The Mobi is with limited control. I've moved on to the RAVPower filehub, a portable device with more features. It functions as a wireless card reader, USB hard drive/flash drive reader. I use it to backup photos and stream medias. There wasn't any delay when I tried to stream a movie to several devices at the same time. What makes me happier is the device comes with built-in 3000mAh battery. Though not much, but big enough to give one and a half charge to my phone.

Bought this to use with my Moultrie game camera' it connecter from 30 ft twice and now it wont' even carried my laptop with in 4 ft of camera, still could not connect maybe I have a faulth card ????????

Bought the 8GB Eye-Fi Mobi SD card. Filled up my iPhone's memory! So deleted some pics from the phone. I could not re-download the pics to the iPhone, but they were still on the Eye-Fi card, and viewable in the camera. Tried putting the Eye-Fi card into three different SD card readers. No luck. Emailed Eye-Fi Tech Support. They said some card readers do not give enough power to the card to read it. SO, they offered to mail me a card reader that will work! Great customer service. They also suggested hooking the camera up to the computer and reading the card through the camera's USB cable. Took me a couple hours to find the cable that came with the camera 3 years ago. But that worked too in the end.

I got the mobi and it has been rock solid..... And just the features that are key: transferring the jpeg half of raw+jpeg to my phone. I don't want the raw files on my phone. Take up too much space and no need. But having the jpgs all there is great. If I want to save space I can delete some but honestly I can fit thousands at a time.

And the raw files can wait until I am back under a roof and have a computer with an sd slot.

The other way the mobi is so much better than the pro: not doing dumb stuff like needing another wifi network, or computer or web interface. Nice. I hated those aspects of the pro card.

My MOBI works great, I like to shoot raw and if I get a shot I want to share online I just convert it in camera to JPG and turn on MOBI and connect and away it goes from my iPhone. That keeps the phone from getting clogged with unnecessary shots and then I can clear the card when I get back to the MacBook quickly with the built in SD card reader. As good as iPhone cameras are they are no substitute for a real camera. A added bene is it will transfer video from my D90 also.

Spend more and get the Eye-Fi card (same company) that can transfer to your computers, as well as your i-devices. I like that with my Canon 6D I don't ever have to take the card out of the camera (normal SD card) because the Canon can feed the pictures to my computer over the wi-fi in my home. AND it can send pics to my phone without any external wifi. It's pretty cool.

Very happy with EZ share cards. And the app has just been much improved. You can either tether (either RAW + JPG or just JPG) or selected individual downloads. It's quick and I use it all the time. with my pocket camera which I always carry.

I use a RAVPower filehub that comes with several features. It works as a wireless SD card reader, USB flash drive/hard drive reader. I use it to backup and upload photos to Instagram. And aslo, it works as a protable external battery charger. 3000mAh is not much, but can at least give a full charge to my phone.

I need a wifi card that I can Select certian pics off of, I take pics of racecars at the local race tracks, I need something where I can take 1 or 2 pics and send them directly to the racing paper as soon as the race ends, I take anywhere from 300-700 pics in 1 night I can not have all 300-700 upload to my phone..

What card can I use that will do this? They don't make any kind of cable to go from my I phone to the camera, I already checked into that.

It may be a bit late for this but with the eyefi card you can configure it so it only transmit the photos that you protect in camera. So if you want to send one to your phone or tablet you protect the image in the camera and it only sends that one.

To select which photos to upload with Mobi:- use a camera like eos 60d that can develop raw to jpeg for single pictures that you select- shoot all raw, only develop to jpeg when you want the picture uploaded

Strongly agree, the only way to select images is that choose selective transfer when setup the card, but you need to lock the image in camera and then transfer to the phone. Why don't they make app to select the images? is it hard to? Very stupid!!

I agree with the previous poster. It can be a very hit and miss affair. Sometimes it takes a bit to get the cards network to show up on my iPhone 4s. But the worst problem is the iPhone can occasionally connect and find that no images are transferred. For some reason the Eye-Fi thinks it's sent them and has tagged them accordingly. So other than removing the card and using a card reader, you have no way to get the images off. Kind of defeats the object really. When it does work its great.

I also have a Toshiba Flashair which has a different approach. Rather than push the images it presents a web interface and by using an app gives you access to pull off what images you want.

No system is ideal, but although I miss the instant push of images from the Eye-Fi, I prefer the more predictable Flashair system.

I bought an Eye-Fi Mobi for use with a Sony RX-100 and it's been a mixed experience at best. It's like magic when it works, but then it doesn't work consistently.

Sometimes it doesn't broadcast its presence and I can't connect. Sometimes it's very fast but other times painfully slow.

Even overlooking the occasional hiccup the design leaves a lot to be desired. They've stripped the ability to selectively transfer files. Unless you shoot selectively you'll run out of time or batter before you've transferred all your shots.

So the Mobi cannot connect to existing wfi networks? Even if that had no practical downside for the reviewer, that seems like an odd feature to give up. I imagine Eye-fi just took an existing wifi chip and software, maybe even from the Pro 2, and disabled that capability so they could justifiably create a new price point. Same for transferring JPGs only. The wifi protocol doesn't care what size or type of file you are sending. Making the Mobi JPG-only required some additional programming or engineering.

That's one possible explanation, though there are many other possibilities. One is that the old wifi solution (whatever mix of hardware+software it was) wasn't working for them and they needed something new, but the new one happened to be missing whatever is necessary to allow connections to existing networks. Considering that almost all cameras with wifi aren't able to connect to existing networks either it seems like this is a strong possibility. Maybe it had to do with the price of the chips used in the Pro 2, or maybe it was energy usage or something.

I agree though that it's a clear downside of this new device. Maybe they did surveys and found that like the reviewer few people were using the feature, it seems like the custom-network system works best for most people.

Thanks, Jeremy. It did not occur to me that there is a context of wifi-enabled cameras, all of which (you say) cannot connect to existing wifi networks. But that also makes me consider the even larger context of wifi-enabled phones, tablets, e-readers, etc., all of which can connect to existing networks. I have four such devices in my house. So it still seems like being able to attach to existing networks is the norm, and creating a new wifi network for other devices to attach to is not. The only devices I can think of that do that other than cameras, are wifi routers.

I have bought a Eye-Fi pro 2 and it work great with de canon T5I transferíng pictures fast and easy to my IPhone or IPad. This Card drains power from the camera so yo have to take this in consideration, and bring along aditional batteries.

the toshiba Flash Air will transfer raw files, or any file on the card, picture, txt, or otherwise, has good power management/ability to turn on and off from the camera, and runs the same or less then the watered down EyeFi, this should have been in the review

My Eye Fi card has persistent flash memory error and has been rejected by a long list of cameras

It also refuses to handle raw files. They are milking you indiscriminately. The capability is there, there just refuses to handle this file type because they have deemed that you have not paid enough. They are abusing their market position.

Also they will require your login to work and so works like a big brother.

All I want is point to point file transfer to my device. They have made a mess out of it and try to ask for more money in the way.

I am thoroughly frustratedby Eye Fi. I long for the days when the competition like EzShare, Toshiba, PQI and the like catches up.

I still long for the day where some camera manufacture such as Sony, will offer true Wi-Fi that transmits images directly to the web. Yes, this would require a subscription just like your smart phone or tablet. However, I think this would be worth paying a monthly service fee similar to that of the iPad.

Yes, I know that it would probably require an external battery pack tethered to your camera, but I would definitely be willing to do all that in order to have instant posting to photo servers. Then again, maybe it already exist and I'm just not aware of it.

I don't know what you mean by monthly service fee. Wifi is just a connection method. If you go somewhere that offers a free wifi connection to the internet, like a coffee shop, then true wifi devices can use it.

I imagine somebody will or has built a wifi dongle that attaches to your camera's USB port. Then the problem is getting the camera to use it. If cameras actually had an operating system (I know a few do), I'd guess that would not be an issue.

I use the Eye-Fi pro card and can transfer Raw + Jpeg quickly.I can process raw on my tablet with PhotoMate2.If I want I can have the Eye-Fi card transfer only those images that I select by placing 'Protect' on any image.You do have to set up the card on your PC but once you doyou are ready to shoot and transfer very quickly.

I tried to use this card in a Nikon D7100 but it was very unreliably. The data transfer only works when the camera lies directly besides the tablet. I tried two different cards with two different tablets. I can't recommend this card.

My Transcend card is doing the same for less money. I even use a 16 GB card I bought for 40 dollar one year ago. It to is class 10 and does RAW. The apps on phonE and tablet are free and very easy to use.

I got an Eye-Fo Mobi a few months for a cycling/camping trip so that I could update my blog using my iPhone everynight. I shot all images on my Pentax DSLR in RAW (Eye-Fi Mobi doesn't see these) and at the end of the day then edit/convert in camera to 5mp JPEG those I wanted to publish same day. The Eye-Fi Mobi just sees the JPEGs (and mov files if you shoot movies),ignores the RAW so doesn't waste time on the upload. It'll also ignore JPEGs uploaded previously. Since you're doing a one off upload of maybe 10-12 images once a day the battery drain on both camera and phone was minimal.

In my circumstance I was able to travel relatively light (no room for laptop or tablet) but was easily able to publish daily or through the day if I wished.

I've got a FluCard Pro for my new Pentax K-3 but while it has more functionality available, it isn't as simple to use like the Eye-Fi Mobi was for what I wanted to do on that trip

I have a Pro X2 and hated the slow speed and unreliable operation. Admittedly mine has been gathering dust for a long time now, so perhaps the ecosystem for these cards has improved. It's really hard to imagine "can't go wrong" with a watered-down version of the product, but maybe there's a market for my unwanted Eye-Fi card.

I've been using this for about a month now. It is very easy to setup, you just type the code from the back of the box into the eye-fi app and you're mostly done.I am using this on both android phone/table and iOS (iPad3). On iOS devices you have to manually select the eye-fi network once you take a pic and the card goes active. On android the app can be set to automatically switch to the eye-fi network when one is detected. (Normally the card creates the network only if there is something to transmit and shuts it down soon after. It will still drain your phones battery faster since it will be looking for the eye-fi network)

The card remembers which jpgs have been transmitted. The transfer will only happen *once*. You can't transfer the same images simultaneously or at different times to multiple devices. You may delete the JPG file and recreate it (e.g., by doing on-camera raw processing and writing the resulting JPG to the card) in which case it will get transmitted again.

If you don't need to transfer images from the card immediately, use your camera's menu (most cameras will show an eye-fi menu) to disable the wifi part. The card will still record the jpg and once you enable wifi again it will transmit all untransmitted photos in one go to your device. It is also a good way to save on the camera's battery power.

I use an older version of Eye-Fi. It it very handy and possibly the fastest way to get JPEG pictures off your camera to your mobile device, (and even to your computer), or cloud through your mobile device. Indeed money well spent. It gives more traditional cameras that don't have wi-fi built-in a fighting chance vs. smartphones, seriously. We live in a world that likes to brag about what it's doing on social networks, and with the advent of the smartphone a few years ago, being able to instantly upload photos taken is very much a necessity today for very many people.

I use this card all the time now. Shooting raw+small jpeg allows me to do quick selects edits on the iphone for posting to facebook/etc from a camera that has no built-in wifi. Results are excellent, it's super quick to get those up compared to editing raw, and can be done on the go. And I always have the RAWs for prints/jobs/etc. Despite limitations, for me personally, best ~100 bucks I've spent on camera equipment in a while.

most likely the posters eye-fi has some missing capability (most of their cards historically lacked one or another major feature for no other reason then to sell a higher price/larger profit margin card, its their business model, not technological limitation) where as the toshiba just does everything OOTB

Most of the critics here have nor even used the card. I have used it at events where we take the picture and people have the option to but. Having the pictures on an ipad for customer review nearly instantly, increases sales.

I do astrophotography, and I connect with a USB cable. I'm out there with the scope anyway, so there's no harm in using a cable.

I never, ever post un-processed images, and I generally like to look at them with at least one "sleep" in between looks. And when I'm on vacation, I don't tell anyone that I'm leaving except those that have to know, and never post pictures until I get back, and usually not for a week or two after that. I don't want anyone to know that I'm gone. I also would never post real-time images of what I'm doing even when I'm not away from home - too invasive and having them be a day or two later makes no real difference.

Oh, the breathtaking selfishness of the DPR forums.... OK, Lee Jay, you are a bit of a pedant and a privacy freak. Fine with me, no worries, no offense. But why, or why do you assume that everyone is like you? Also, have you ever heard about Snapseed? Gives you a fine ability to post-process an image right on your phone. Like it or not, the world around you has moved on. People snap photos with their cell phone and share them online. The ability to share better quality photos is a positive development.

alexzn, please point out the part of Lee Jay's comment where he assumes everyone is just like himself? Oh the breathtaking irony of taking someone to task for having a self-centric view of what's worth sharing or not.

While it's not necessary to insult old people, It's true that people see products as if they were the only person in the world. "If it's not fast enough to shoot a charging rhino, it's worthless!" My neighbor shoots car accidents. He is the Ansel Adams of insurance.

For people who have always been using Extreme pro SD card, the speed with Eye-fi is just unbearable. Here in Sydney I can buy an 32G Extreme pro for A$80 and a Kingston MobileLite Wireless Flash Reader for A$50. Total A$130.....exactly how much Ey-fi ProX2 16G is selling. The kingston only require me to take my card out of the camera, I can live with that.

The Ey-fi mobi sells for about A$50 which is same price as the MobileLite Wireless Flash Reader. Yes you have to pay about A$10 for an class 10 card, but there is one thing the MobileLite Wireless Flash Reader can do is back up to a USB key.

Unless Eye-fi bring out a version equal the speed of Extreme pro and price it at the Pro x2 leve(not going to happen)l, I will give them a pass.

Every electronic equipment has the risk to fail. It is up to the user to think of plan B planC etc, and of course depends on the user budget. I don't see there is a problem in his case. At least most of the time you can recover data from a SD card failure... Un like mechanical hard disk.....

It does peer to peer. I can send pictures directly to a tablet, computer, etc no router needed.Even the old model which I have does peer to peer.These cards are useful for certain cases but most of the time I use regular SD cards, cheaper, faster.

Not exactly -- I'm not talking about a collective comparison article. DPReview reviews of individual cameras still compare specific attributes across brands, this one doesn't. Aside from the second sentence, this article makes it sound like it's entirely a choice between Eye-Fi products.

How to shoot RAW and at the same time send small jpegs to your tablet or PC I have never been able to find out. If you shoot large jpegs the transmission is rather slow. I liked the X2-pro but because of the above almost never use it.

I think it can only be done on certain cameras, like the 5DIII, which has two cards.I have my 5DIII set to save Large RAW to the CF card, and small JPEG to the Mobi X2 PRO SD card. The Mobi card therefor only uploads the small JPG, and i have the large RAW on the CF for later

@StevenE that is a ludicrous misuse of the dual card feature. But what the hell. That is probably first time I hear about a workable setup with the wi-fi cards. Sad that it requires dual card slots, which are available only on few cameras.

@Adrian, I should try that. I have connected my GX7 with the smartphone, but haven't tried the image transfers. Mostly because I do not need the images on the smartphone. The bigger problem of course is that smartphones can be only connected to one network: either Wi-Fi or cell, but not both at the same time. That limits the usefulness of the feature. But just to see how useful it can be I would try it.

It's fairly easy to do. With the Eye-Fi Pro X2, you can command it to transfer only JPEGs to a computer, tablet, or phone, while the RAW files will remain on the card and not transfer. I use a special image display command on my Mac through Preview so that the image pops up in fullscreen while I take them. Clients love it.

The setting allow you to transfer only the JPEG files and RAW files will remain on the card. What you are really looting with EyeFi setup is the ability to shoot full-size JPEGs (assuming you want to transfer only the small size JPEGs). Presumably you can re-process the full size JPEGs either on a computer or if you like your built-in conversion, you can do it on the camera (clunky).

Yes, this is the must-have thing for a camera since there is no way I'll be able to cope if I can't share all my unadjusted images almost instantly on Twitter, Facebook and Flickr - my friends would love their timelines filling up with that. Preferably they should be up there just as I trigger the shutter - no, even before I take the picture would be ideal so I could look it up there myself before bringing out my camera to see if a picture was worth taking. Someone should invent a time machine Eye-Fi card so I could do that.

Not to mention it is too much hard work actually taking the SD card out of my camera and inserting it in the card slot on my computer to import my photos that way. I mean: who does that anymore? I read a review of an Eye-Fi card and it says you can "get rid of a ton of messy cables". Who doesn't want to get rid of literally a ton of messy cables, right?

"Who doesn't want to get rid of literally a ton of messy cables, right?"

Uploading an UHS SD card with a fast internal card reader to a laptop is MUCH faster than WIFI and does not need messy cables at all and largely compensate for the (ridiculously short) time lost to switch the SD card from the camera to the laptop...

It is useful for fast response in the field. Especially ENG. The small JPGs can be posted for reporting almost instantly through your cellphone, giving the shooter the scoop. I'd say WiFi transfer will become essential for NEWS gatherers, if it isn't already. RAW files are saved for later

Funny! I can see facebook jumping on that one. Imagine going to your friends timeline and seeing a window of what they are pointing their camera at before the picture is even taken? Instead of pressing the shutter button, the camera waits for a "like" response! Someone quick, create an app for that!!!!

I don't know why, but I do find it easier to post pictures from my phone than from a pc, where Facebook is concerned. I like to quickly instagram the photos by adding a border and minor enhancements. For me, it's a quick style.

After reading your humorous post, I am certainly going to provide my audience with higher quality pictures to look at and focus more on quality than speed.

I just bought a camera with wi fi - a Lumix GM1. The interface is shockingly incomprehensible, the instructions are hopeless, and the connection itself is slow to establish and prone to dropping out. Given that the Mobi card depends on the host camera for its menus I'd be surprised if it's all that easy to use. And it won't go directly to a laptop without, again, an absence of sensible menus. Tell me, what was wrong with a USB wire anyway? Or just popping out the SD card and popping it into a reader? Except for social media sharing via a phone when you have no laptop handy, I just don't see the point. And even for that purpose you can buy SD to iPhone/iPad readers.

"Except for social media sharing via a phone when you have no laptop handy, I just don't see the point."Setting aside pro photographers who needs to instantly review an enlarged picture of their shots, Geeks like wireless connections...It is the future for them even if it drains batteries of their cameras and mobile devices... ;-)Personally, I give priority to battery life.

Or you could just usel Google+ if you are on Android (or something else if you are an iPhone user) and set it to back up your full-res photos to "the cloud" over either 4G, 3G or WiFi. Then you can download all the photos to your PC as and when you want.

The downside of this method over EyeFi is that you are doing two actions instead of one. But if you have fast internet connection the time loss should not be too bad.

And the big advantage over Eye-Fi is that your photos are on an offsite backup, so if your PC gets stolen or breaks or your house burns down, you can still get your photos from said cloud.

Don't your method involve three steps? You have to transfer your photos from the camera to the phone or tablet first. And if the camera doesn't have built-in WiFi, isn't that when the Eye-Fi cards come in handy?

With the Mobi card I shoot (low res) JPEG+Raw sending the JPEG quickly to an iPad or iPhone for review using ShutterSnitch. Eye-Fi have a Mobi Desktop Receiver for Mac and Windows in public beta: http://www.eye.fi/labs .

A 4G network is no substitute for an EyeFi card. It provides no camera interface whatsoever.

The newer consumer cameras do often provide a WiFi feature but msny do not, including pro level DSLRs and other deluxe gear. For me the EyeFi is a no-brainer. I own 2, one for my NEX-7, the other for my alpha a77 DSLT, neither of which have any WiFi.

There is a huge legacy of DLSRs and other expensive cameras without Wi-Fi. WiFI alone hardly can justify buying a new $1000+ camera body if there is no other major reason to upgrade. Even some actual models don't offer built-in Wi-Fi. So it will take quite a few years until these cards will become redundant.

these cards were pretty much useless even back then..Most people don't have a studio, so they don't need to review low-res images on a tablet/PC after each shot.And these cards are useless for transferring full resolution pictures, not to mention RAWs. The abysmal maximum transfer speeds of 1.5MB/s make this just a toy, really.

I'm not sure what world you live in but in the real world most cameras do not have wi-fi and most of the world does not have 4G, and even if it is available data caps make it impractical for mass photo xfer.

I have recently bouth d610 without wifi and card like thi is very usefull. I have both a FlashAir toshiba 32GB class 10 card and maby this is not something for pros abut for a travel use or daily photograpy it is enouch. This cards wont be out of buisines until people will own cameras without wifi